Issues Views Reviews

Kambakht Ishq Movie Review

July 6, 2009

I watched this movie despite dire warnings from reviewers. This is not a movie that I have reviewed for one my clients, I watched it for myself. No one forced me to see this movie, in fact I had to persuade someone to go with me. I saw it because of the bad reviews. I wanted to see to what depths a Bollywood movie can sink to. So did I find a new benchmark with which to measure comic trash?

Not really. Chandni Chowk to China came closer. Kambakht Ishq, directed by Sabir Khan, does actually cater to a certain kind of audience. CCTC didn’t cater to anybody, not even the masses. KI has stuff for the salivating male. Lots of flesh and anatomy jokes for one thing. The hero Viraj (Akshay Kumar) is a misogynist (woman hater), the heroine Bebo (Kareena Kapoor) is a misandrist (man hater). If he thinks women are either bitches or brainless toys, she thinks men are dogs or sex obsessed pigs.

It is amusing to see the two clash. Their close encounters are violent and quite absurd. The way he sticks his face close to hers and throws her around and the way she keeps spitting venom and hatred. Sure, this Bollywood hero is shown blatantly eve-teasing and harassing the heroine and this is not shown to be “good” behavior. But later one gets the disturbing idea that perhaps Bebo is attracted to some sort of violent and sadistic behavior in men. One doesn’t quite understand as to why she forgives Viraj for his crass and disgusting behavior. One can hazard a guess that it is because she is desperate to get married (besides unconsciously wanting to marry a horrible man and destroy herself). It could also be true that the director is sending a message that women who say no actually mean yes, or perhaps the director is saying that all women are stupid bimbos (even the educated ones) who think with their crotch. Or perhaps the director is saying that a man who harrasses women is actually a good guy at heart. Whichever it is, I think the director’s vision is a pathetic one for this day and age and I don’t think making this a comedy excuses him. Bebo is also shown to be an incompetent and careless doctor, while Viraj is shown to be superb at his work, so much so that he gets an international award. All the other women in the women are simpering idiots. Including Denise Richards. I am surprised that she has dared to play herself.

Akshay’s character Viraj does reveal later that his bark is worse than his bite and this could be one reason why Bebo changes her mind about him. Viraj however is shown true to his character and falls for Bebo only when he sees her soft side.

Javed Jaffrey is good. He plays a small comic role as a bystander who cons people into thinking that they have done him harm just so that he can sue them. I found his expressions very funny, even though his role is an absurd one. Akshay Kumar looks tired in many of the shots but Kareena looks fresh. They sizzle on screen, although their so-called romantic scenes seem absurd and artificial. Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh are there for nothing. A total waste. Amrita Arora looks attractive. Aftab Shivdasani gives an average performance.

That the movie is shot in Hollywood, with clips from Kodak theatre and bit parts played by a few Hollywood stars left me cold. In fact it is quite absurd taking this story to Hollywood. One could do it right here, it would have had the right ambiance.

I am using the word absurd too much. Well, I feel like using it about fifty times more because that is what the movie is, an absurd fantasy fulfilling every sexist’s dream. This film is not to be taken seriously, and perhaps that is why I didn’t hate it. I actually smiled in some parts, despite myself.

As mentioned by you, even I was warned by close ones to avoid this one. But the most interesting and comic part of the movie was when Akshay’s friend says HiJack!!
That part was really executed brilliantly.

Dunno… Bollywood seems to be obsessed with showing white people in the background and also in its riddiculous dance numbers. Sometimes they tailor make the story to suit that (or most of the time as it happnes they don’t bother about the story at all).
Maybe the Indian masses think its cool to see whities prancing around with our own set of wannabe whities……

//I am using the word absurd too much…I feel like using it about fifty times more…//

If you look into the Thesaurus section of http://www.dicionary.com you would find close to 100 equivalents for the word ‘absurd’. I could help you with another 100 — most of them unprintable in a respectable blog such as this ;-)

Frankly, I see this particular post of yours as a classic case of maochistic behaviour, but chacun à son goût:-)

Ritu and Oorja, not watching it in a theater is a wise decision. Frankly it’s not worth watching on TV either. For me it was professional curiosity.

Dev, yeah that joke took everyone by surprise. There were a few others which weren’t bad, though crass.

Harsh, avoiding Akshay is a wise move! :)

Soham, Sakhi, now I am wondering what exactly I wrote! :)

BK Chowla, sick is the word. I felt sick several times during the movie!

rush.me, hangover time was not suiting me. I want to see that movie and lets see if I can.

Rofl Indian, I guess watching Bebo in a swimsuit was a treat! :)

Vivek, well this story could have been shot on the moon or on a spaceship and it wouldn’t have made a difference! :)

hitchwriter, I doubt that they question your intelligence. They assume you don’t have any! :)

Nimmy, that’s a good decision! :)

Prerna, I do hope it helps some people. Thanks.

rags, here there was this kind of glorification of some hollywood stars which I felt was totally unnecessary. And this half naked white girl thing, it’s really sick.

Vivek, I guess we should count ourselves lucky that you didn’t provide us with some synonyms. :) But seriously, for me this movie was professional curiosity. This week end there are some more I am going to subject myself too. What to do, it’s work for me!

hinduonline, well this movie is too stupid for any conspiracy theory to hold water.

Soham, I am amateur photographer and there is nothing very great in my photos. In this photograph I went to the balcony of the hotel in which I was staying in Ahmedabad and took four straight photographs from one side to the other. These I joined up with the software photoshop. I know the basics of photoshop. And that is how I got this photograph. Actually this did not come out as well as I wanted. Because my hand was not evenly moving when I took the photos or I think because there was a slight turn or something, the lake took on a more pronounced curve than was natural. You can easily do this. In fact better. You just need a good digital camera and the software photoshop.

Thanks for fearlessly stating the truth. That’s indeed what the Sabarmati has become thanks to the much trumpeted Riverfront Development Project. It is now almost entirely impounded water, and neither hydrologically nor ecologically can it be called a river any more.

Vivek, except the two months of monsoon, sabarmati river used to be empty and you could just see sands and trash over there. Now at least it has water flowing throughtvgthe year and when the rivet front project is gonna be complete, it is surely gonna give Ahmedabad a new look – a new horizon -a new height.

My precise point is that it is not flowing. The full-of-water-round-the-year Sabarmati that you now see is just impounded water, not a river.

It is perfectly normal for most Indian rivers to be either dry or just trickles for 8-10 months of the year. The only exceptions are the snow-fed rivers of the Indo-Gangetic plain and a few of the major rivers of the peninsula.

As for the trash, don’t you think it is the duty of citizens not to carelessly throw it around, and of the civic authorities to create enough mechanisms to prevent it being strewn all over?

And coming to “a new look – a new horizon -a new height” for Ahmedabad, I’d much rather we did a good job of conserving and improving upon what we have, rather than aping Shanghai, Singapore, or whatever are the currently fashionable flavours in urbanism. Pardon me if I totally disagree with you on that one.

Regarding the sandy bed of the Sabarmati, do look out for the dramatic photographs of it from the late-1940s and the 1950s by the celebrated Henri Cartier-Bresson. You may find them on the internet by googling Cartier-Bresson>Ahmedabad, or if you can lay your hands on the beautiful 1987 publication “Henri Cartier-Bresson in India”, with a foreword by Satyajit Ray.

I can empathise with your desire for a river full of flowing water, but dry river beds also have their own charm.

I am out of India at present, and was eagerely waiting to see a new hindi movie. Kambhaqt Ishq looked quiet an entertainer from its promos. However, I was so disappointed after watching this movie that this is the first time I am posting my comments online.
Kambhaqt Ishq is a movie which probably shouldnt have taken more than 2 days to complete. It has absolutely no story line, no comedy, and no entertainment, except unnecessary usage of vocabulary which people in the movie claim to be the part of modern era. I belong from this era and stay in New York, I have never seen usage of such language anywhere. According to kareena Kapoor, this movie is not meant for oscars. I would like to say forget oscars please make movies for ordians. This movie has such a pathetic comedy perhaps, no comedy at all. Kareena looks so dried up in the movie. In the very first scene her skin under eyes are so sunken and she looks so old that there seems to be absolutely no difference in Akshays and her age. she looks like an ant whose blood has been sucked out. Gorgeous is the last thing she is looking. She is loud when it comes to publicity and thinks that she is the so called no.1. Please do some reality check. perhaps she should take dance lessons from her own sister Karishma Kapoor. Earlier actresses would hardly spend so long hours on publicity as they were so dam talented and the competition was so intense as everyone on block used to be extremely talented. Kareena looks a lady who is only there to stand on dice and be loud. Akshay Kumar has done this movie just like his other movies where he really dosent know what the script is all about.
Javed Jaffrey-There is absolutely no comedy for him to do. And the director of the movie, I would say he can go back to school.

This is such a crude and horrible remake of a good and really funny tamil movie… Akshay kumar plays Kamal hassan’s roll and he sucks at it he has not even performed .1% of what kamal hassan has performed… and the stupid kareena cant act for nuts and is horrible on screen with her dumb attitude.. she should be called dumbo instead of bebo or whatever that is.. over all the 4 screenplay writers had a loose motion while writing this and they wrote the same screenplay as the tamil one the only difference was in the hurry and anger they mutilated it with vulgar shit.. bollywood has taken people for granted and makes stupid movies like this where in akshay kumar plays a stunt man for a hollywood star who is taller and stronger than this chimp.. why cant bollywood directors try something simple and subtle like taare zameen par has bollywood run out of good directors..
this movie is total hype and has nothing in it other than 2 half naked idiots shouting at each other without any purpose in life.. this movie would have done better if this was a bhojpuri movie….

# This is such a crude and horrible remake of a good and really funny tami

l movie… Akshay kumar plays Kamal hassan’s roll and he sucks at it he has not even performed .1% of what kamal hassan has performed… and the stupid kareena cant act for nuts and is horrible on screen with her dumb attitude.. she should be called dumbo instead of bebo or whatever that is.. over all the 4 screenplay writers had a loose motion while writing this and they wrote the same screenplay as the tamil one the only difference was in the hurry and anger they mutilated it with vulgar shit.. bollywood has taken people for granted and makes stupid movies like this where in akshay kumar plays a stunt man for a hollywood star who is taller and stronger than this chimp.. why cant bollywood directors try something simple and subtle like taare zameen par has bollywood run out of good directors..
this movie is total hype and has nothing in it other than 2 half naked idiots shouting at each other without any purpose in life..

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